August 2, 2014

Review + Giveaway: Marine Park: Stories by Mark Chiusano

An astute, lively, and heartfelt debut story collection by an exciting new voice in contemporary fiction.

Marine Park—in the far reaches of Brooklyn, train-less and
tourist-free—finds its literary chronicler in Mark Chiusano. Chiusano’s
dazzling stories delve into family, boyhood, sports, drugs, love, and
all the weird quirks of growing up in a tight-knit community on the edge
of the city. In the tradition of Junot Díaz’s Drown, Stuart Dybek’s The Coast of Chicago, and Russell Banks’s Trailerpark, this is a poignant and piercing collection—announcing the arrival of a distinct new voice in American fiction.

“Chiusano
gives a voice to the lesser-known Brooklyn neighborhood of Marine Park
in his collection of interconnected stories that unearth broader truths
among quotidian events, from haircuts
to train rides.”

“Here’s
the spirit of dear Sherwood Anderson in Mark Chiusano’s Marine Park,
another village brimming with all of the odd drama of families and
loners. There is something a little old and
wise in this talented writer’s debut. At times the stories read like
the news, letters from a friend, and at times the tales seem elegiac
glimpses of a lost world. Mr. Chiusano is writing family from the inside
out and he makes this world an aching bittersweet
pleasure. Here is the kind of affectionate particularity which marks a
fine writer.”

—Ron Carlson

“One
of the most subtle, tender, emotionally powerful books that I’ve read
in a long time. Set mostly in Brooklyn, but its
subject is the whole of America. If you’ve never been to Marine Park
before, by the end of this collection you’ll feel like you’d lived there
your whole life. This is a stunning debut.”

—Saïd Sayrafiezadeh

“In
clean, honed prose, Mark Chiusano gives us an intimate tour of a
neighborhood of Brooklyn not offered up in fiction before. His
explorations of loyalty within a family, and the breach
of it, are startling and affecting—his sense of story is impeccable. Marine Park is a debut worth a reader’s close attention.”

—Amy Hempel

“The stories in Marine Park are funny and touching and
elliptical, and all about coming of age at the edge of the city and on
the margins of the good life, with some moving forward and others left
behind. Mark Chiusano is wonderful on how our minds can
be elsewhere even when we wish to be wholly present, and on the oblique
ways in which we therefore often have to signal our indispensability to
one another.”

—Jim Shepard

“In Marine Park, Mark Chiusano shines a light on lives that are
too often left in the dark. He shows us, with humor and deep-hearted
compassion, the complexities of growing up and growing old in the blue
collar shadows, and he gives us, story after
story, the chance to see ourselves in his longing, hopeful characters.
This is a wise and affecting collection, and it marks the arrival of a
voice we’ve not heard until now, one that will carry through the streets
and alleys of contemporary literature for
years to come.”

—Bret Anthony Johnston

Marine Park is a collection of seventeen short stories, all of which touched me in some way. Some were funny and others sad, and they all dealt with life, family, love, and growing up. The writing was fluid and had a great conversational tone, which made it easy to fly through all the stories in a short amount of time. The author does a fantastic job of pulling the reader into the story alongside him - almost to the point where it felt like I was there when these things happened. Each story had a strong attention to detail and description with vivid imagery to make the entire story - setting, people, situations - come to life. I don't generally read short stories or anthologies, but I'm glad I made an exception for this book. It was truly a pleasure to read and showcases the author's talent nicely. I loved reading each story, regardless of what happens, because they all allowed me to experience things I never have before - and probably never will. Most of all, this collection of stories put the author on my radar, and I'll definitely be reading more of his works soon. Highly recommended for fans of anthologies and short stories, along with those who enjoy realistic fiction and memoirs.

Mark Chiusano is a graduate of
Harvard University, where he was the recipient of a Hoopes Prize for
outstanding undergraduate fiction. His stories have appeared in Guernica, Narrative Magazine, the Harvard Review, and online at Tin House and The Paris Review Daily. He was born and raised in Brooklyn. (Taken from Goodreads)